Minister of Arts and Sciences March 2017

The annual Kingdom Arts and Sciences competition submission period begins as this newsletter goes to its virtual presses, and ends at midnight on March 31st. I hope to see many of you in the Barony of Lonely Tower on April 15th for that annual high tide point for our Arts and Sciences in the Falcon Lands.

In the meantime, I will be at Gulf Wars, located in the merchant area, and teaching a day of classes on sand casting at The Great Machine. Exactly which day, I am not sure yet; I’ll be there though. Please feel free to stop by and chat. The Gulf War merchant rules require continuous manning of the stall and an unforeseen permanent physical issue has greatly impaired my ability to rove around the site, so unfortunately I will not be much in evidence in the Calontir camping area.

The A&S warrant list was duly signed at Coronation, so all is good order administratively. I do need to note that Kingdom A&S will mark the halfway term in my own term of office. At some point after the competition, I will be posting an announcement seeking a successor, who would ideally be selected at Queen’s Prize in order to have the entire run-up to the 2018 Kingdom A&S competition to break in and observe before assuming the responsibilities of the position.

I would also particularly like to commend the folk at recent events who held largesse competitions. Although the “Dirty Dozen” format is one that doesn’t work too well with the very time-consuming nature of producing my own primary work, I do contribute a large number of items every year with my Shire’s tithe and largesse baskets, and I would encourage anyone in a similar position with their craft to do that.

Finally, a short note to Guild heads. While the Guilds are responsible directly to the Crown, and not to the Minister of Arts and Sciences, Article Exchequer 2 XVII of the Laws of Calontir requires them to report once per reign to BOTH the Crown and the Arts and Sciences Minister. There is no grace period. The penalty for failing to report is suspension of the Guild. As of Coronation, I had received only three Guild reports, and an email to the official addresses of the Guild heads has received no response from the delinquents. The Bardic College, Potters Guild, and Brewers Guild are in good standing, but I must reluctantly tell you the rest are living on borrowed time under Kingdom law. This is a matter of hard and fast law, not me being a jerk, and needs to be fixed without delay if the guilds wish to continue.

Thank you for all your service and support. I look forward to seeing many of you at Gulf Wars and Kingdom A&S!